LibriVox recording of Tourmalin's Time Cheques, by Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856-1934) under the pseudonym of F. Anstey. Read by Anna Simon, Ruth Golding and Tricia G.

Peter Tourmalin is on a sea voyage back home to England from Australia, to return to his fiancee, and he is very bored. The fact that the time difference adds on extra hours to his boredom only makes it worse. So when he gets a unique opportunity to deposit his spare time into an account with the "Anglo-Australian Joint Stock Time Bank, Limited" he doesn't hesitate for long. By opening this account, he doesn't have to spend his spare time right away, but can withdraw it at any future date, when he wants a break. All he has to do is present a time cheque to any clock, and he is immediately brought back aboard ship to spend the time withdrawn.

Sounds perfect? Peter certainly thinks so, when on a dreary November morning in London, a little tired with his exacting fiancee, he presents his first cheque and gets to spend a sunny quarter of an hour aboard ship. However, things get complicated when it turns out the time withdrawn isn't in consecutive installments, but all mixed up, leaving Peter often with no clue of any preliminaries or his relationship with the person he finds himself with. Since he is almost always dropped in the middle of a conversation this can be tricky - especially since his encounters include tete-a-tetes with not one but two beautiful young ladies (never at the same time of course!)… And things only get more and more complicated... (Summary by Anna Simon)

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M4B audiobook of complete book


This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Thomas Anstey Guthrie
Date: 2009-11-17
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audiobook; adventure; romance; fantasy; science fiction; time travel; time paradox

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: TriciaG - - January 22, 2010
Subject: Fun Little Story
A fun, light story that sucked me right in. I wasn't sure how he'd get out of the tangle he got himself into! A worthwhile listen.

Reviewer: mikezane - - January 21, 2010
Subject: Cute - if cliche - story
Imagine if you were bored and could save the time for a later date. Would you? What would the results be? This story takes a tongue-in-cheek look at this concept. The story is both funny and dramatic. I liked it.

The readers were mostly good. I think only one chapter was rough. Otherwise it is a very good story. Enjoy!